Nick Grimm: Now to one of the new afflictions of modern life. It's called dry eye and it's been around for a while. It's a condition usually only observed in older patients, though. And increasingly, optometrists are saying they're seeing children as young as 12 now presenting with the condition. It's the result, it seems, of the young spending too much time staring at screens. Mark Rigby reports.
Mark Rigby: At 27 years of age, Madison Brinkworth started having eye issues.
Madison Brinkworth: Started kind of really itchy red eyes. Over time, that would kind of clear up on its own. But then as it got worse, it was like my eyes would just become really, really irritated. Like in the mornings, I would wake up and they'd be really swollen and it'dlast for a few hours.
Mark Rigby: Like many Australians, Ms Brinkworth works from home. So for at least eight hours a day, she's looking at her laptop screen. Throw in some scroll time on the phone and she's nearing double digits. But when her symptoms started, she put them down to eczema, which she'd experienced in the past.
Madison Brinkworth: I ended up going to get my eyes checked, and my optometrist, and I mentioned these conditions and I said, is there anything I could do? At the time, I didn't think really there was anything that I could do. I thought it was just eczema and it was just something that I had to kind of suffer with. But then she did say that it was probably dry eye. Because of my lifestyle of working from home and I'm constantly on a computer, that it definitely could stem from that. And there's some research being done to support that.
Mark Rigby: Dry eye disease is traditionally thought of as a condition that affects older people. But professor of optometry and vision science at Queensland University of Technology, Scott Read says it's becoming more common in younger people and even children.
Scott Read: Evidence from research suggests somewhere between 5 and 20% of children may have dry eye. So up to one in five kids. And certainly digital device use is something that has been shown in research to be associated with dry eye in younger populations. There's also evidence, I guess, that particularly if those devices are used before bedtime, that's another factor.
Mark Rigby: It's caused by problems with the tear film or the protective layer of tears over the eye. Professor Reid says it's chronic and it gets worse. So its prevalence in younger populations is a real concern.
Scott Read: In very mild forms, dry eye only leads to fairly minor symptoms. But if it becomes more significant, then patients can get greater symptoms and it can significantly affect someone's quality of life. So in kids, this might mean affecting concentration or performance at school related to the condition.
Mark Rigby: Associate Professor Colin Chan from the University of Sydney is an ophthalmic surgeon. He says while research into the link between screen time and dry eye is ongoing, some things are already clear.
Colin Chan: It's related to the duration of use. So there was one study that showed that blink rate, which is important to replenish the tears, actually reduced after an hour of using a phone or screen. And then there was another study from India which showed that things became much worse once you exceeded three hours in terms of starting to see more permanent changes. So it's related to duration. There's some evidence saying it's related to screen size. So the smaller the screen, the worse it is.
Mark Rigby: Professor Chan says while it's not feasible for kids or adults to give up screens completely, there are steps you can take to maintain good eye health.
Colin Chan: Adequate sleep and good sleep is shown to reduce dry eye. One other aspect is good diet. So omega-3s in your diet have been well shown to actually improve dry and help your tear gland function as well. And then exercise is the other thing. So increasing testosterone levels is again thought to help dry eye. So a lot of the things that we know are good for us actually are so good for dry eyes. So again, if you can find ways to encourage your kids to sleep more, sleep earlier, exercise more and have good diets, then that will help too.
Mark Rigby: Maddy Brinkworth says while she's confident she can manage the condition, she's shocked her eyes are showing signs of the disease so early.
Madison Brinkworth: It is a bit of a worrying factor that it started so early. I have a really strict regime in terms of like using my wash, my spray and my eye drops and giving myself a break from the screen as well. Because yeah, as I said, I am working eight hours on a laptop. So there is only so much I can do, but I am trying to be mindful.
Nick Grimm: Dry eye sufferer Madison Brinkworth ending that report from Mark Rigby.